Carlson’s Willingness to Question Dominant Narratives Made Him an Enemy of Powerful Establishment
Carlson’s Willingness to Question Dominant Narratives Made Him an Enemy of Powerful Establishment
Carlson was unique in that he gave airtime to stories almost nobody else wanted to touch. He extensively covered the Twitter files revealing the disturbing ties between Big Tech and Big Business
“The truth is contagious,” now-former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a speech at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary gala Friday night just outside Washington, D.C. “The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become.”
As you likely have heard by now, Carlson left the Fox News Channel on Monday. There is of course wild speculation as to why Fox’s biggest star left the network.
The reaction has been a mix of shock and, in some circles, celebration.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was thrilled with the Fox move and posted a video saying that deplatforming “works.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a self-professed socialist, is apparently on the side of our current institutions smashing dissenters. Isn’t that interesting?
My biggest takeaway from Carlson’s exit from Fox News is that it represents a final break between “mainstream” corporate news and dissenting voices—whether on the Right or Left. I’d argue that even if you don’t like Carlson’s views, this is a worrisome moment for the United States.
Carlson was unique in that he gave airtime to stories almost nobody else wanted to touch. He extensively covered the Twitter files—revealing the disturbing ties between and among Big Tech, Big Business, and Big Government. He analyzed footage from Jan. 6, 2021, showing that what actually took place that day wasn’t in line with the narrative promoted by most legacy media outlets. He questioned the official narrative about Watergate and the role of intelligence agencies in American history.
Carlson was one of the rare dissenting voices on the war in Ukraine. Whether you agree with him or not on what the wisest U.S. policy is regarding support for Ukraine, isn’t it important that we keep an open mind about how best to serve American interests? After all, America faces immense challenges of its own, internally and externally.
We shouldn’t blindly trust our leaders and institutions to always do the right thing. Certainly not now, when they are so fully ideologically compromised. That should be particularly clear following the social unrest of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Afghanistan exit debacle, among other events in the past few years.
“Trust the science” was weaponized to mean “Do what you are told, or else.” Powerful people in powerful positions made bad, imperious calls with little consequence for them. Obvious failures have been glossed over without a reckoning for why they happened.
We left tens of billions of dollars in valuable military equipment behind in Afghanistan, where the Taliban quickly took over the country. Why did the Taliban seem to have a better handle on the situation than our military leaders?
“They couldn’t even secure a single runway,” Carlson said of our government’s actions in the days before the Afghanistan pullout. “And that’s the main lesson of the fall of Kabul. We are led by buffoons. They have no idea what they’re doing. We know that now. They’re imposters.”
Of course, no one in a high-level position lost their job or took full accountability for the disaster. Carlson supported the Afghanistan withdrawal, but rightly questioned why it was carried out so shambolically and with little subsequent accountability.
Apparently, the administration and most of the media are just going to let that slide. We should take that lesson and apply that to other important decisions for our country.
Writing a blank check for Ukraine aid is imprudent, whether we want more involvement in the conflict or less.